Data security is of paramount importance as more and more data is collected and maintained in network based systems. An important component of security is secure communications between devices. Specifically, a large amount of data is exchanged between network connected devices every minute. The exchange can take the form of messages, documents and other data communicated between devices, including as emails, attachments, instant messages, files and others.
Today, a large volume of data including emails and documents are communicated with minimal security, meaning that such communications can be readily intercepted and misappropriated by malicious third party devices. Although mechanisms exist for securing such communications, they are typically cumbersome to use and relatively easy to defeat. For example, most existing systems for securing communications rely on asymmetric encryption methods where a publicly available key is used to encrypt data and a private key is used to decrypt it. Asymmetric encryption methods are problematic in that they do not offer as strong a protection as symmetric ones. Moreover, since the public/private key pair remain unchanged, once a key pair is compromised, a vast amount of communications can be deciphered.
Symmetric encryption methods also exist for securing communications that offer stronger protection than asymmetric methods. However, such methods are cumbersome to use. For example, they typically involve exchanging keys out of band, making the setting or renewal of keys cumbersome and thus infrequent. Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method for a secure communications that affords strong protection and is convenient to use.